A UTILITY company has apologised ‘unreservedly’ for ‘failing on the basics’ after it sent in an unannounced work crew to dig up a Guildford man’s drive.

Tom Daly, of Pewley Way, had contacted Thames Water and it was agreed he would have a water meter installed on his property.

Work was to be carried out on his drive rather than on the pavement outside his home, he said, as the pavement had itself only recently been dug up.

However, this was the last he heard from the utility company.

That was until he returned from taking his wife to hospital on July 28, and found a hole, covered by a yellow piece of plastic, which had been left in his drive but no sign of any other work had been carried out.

Mr Daly said: “I had to take my wife to hospital and on our return home two-hours later, we found the drive had been dug up.

“We parked on the street and the only evidence of work, as the workmen had disappeared, was a yellow cover and a chalky water stain over the drive and pavement.

“On lifting the yellow cover we found no evidence of any meter.

“No attempt had been made beforehand to tell us that the work had was going to be done and furthermore no note was left through the letter box to inform us what had been done or what remained to be done.

“Where was the meter?

“A call to the water company for an explanation proved fruitless but they gave a phone number on which we could leave a message.

“We did this but we received no return call.

“We wrote to the company but as of August 6 we had received no reply.

“The story is not complete. On July 29, another private company authorised by the water company came to make good the drive.

“They could not explain what had been done the day before, they had merely been authorised to repair what had been done.”

A spokesman for Thames Water said: “We failed on the basics here.

“Turning up to do the work is all well and good, but failing to tell the customer when we’re going to arrive beforehand is just not good enough.